Experiences of the Clerkship Challenges of Laboratory Sciences in the Students and the Faculty Respective Opinion: A Qualitative Research

Laboratory science graduates are experts who together with other health care workers will be responsible for performing common clinical laboratories practices. In order to do this, the students must acquire the necessary knowledge and skills during the internship, and various problems will reduce the efficiency of internship in the field of laboratory sciences students. Identifying and solving these problems is essential to enhance the efficiency of this course. This research was done with the purpose of examining the laboratory sciences clerkship course by knowing about the viewpoints of the related faculty members, graduates and students at Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences.. In this qualitative study, a purposive sampling was used to select the subjects from the population of trainees, graduates and the faculty members, graduates and students of laboratory sciences. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. The results of the interviews led us to select the next sample, until no fresh ideas were gained. After gathering data from 13 persons, the results of the study were investigated by means of content analysis methodology. By analyzing research data, five key themes were identified including clerkship curriculum, Expectations from clerkship, motivation of students for clerkship involvement and clerkship planning and management. The results of this study demonstrated that general view of instructors and students are positive, but in the implementation, there are problems that should be addressed by the authorities.. So it is necessary for officials to improve the quality of clerkship through more incorporated plans.